Selda Heddle, a famously reclusive composer, is found dead in a snowy field near her Cornish home. She was educated at Agnes's Hospice for Acoustically Gifted Children, which for centuries has offered its young wards a grounding in the gift - an inherited ability to tune into the voices and sounds of the past. When she dies, Selda's gift passes down to her grandson Wolf, who must make sense of her legacy, and learn to live with the newly unleashed voices in his head. Ambitious and exhilarating, The Variations is a novel of startling originality about music and the difficulty - or impossibility - of living with the past.
Selda Heddle, a famously reclusive composer, is found dead in a snowy field near her Cornish home. She was educated at Agnes's Hospice for Acoustically Gifted Children, which for centuries has offered its young wards a grounding in the gift - an inherited ability to tune into the voices and sounds of the past. When she dies, Selda's gift passes down to her grandson Wolf, who must make sense of her legacy, and learn to live with the newly unleashed voices in his head. Ambitious and exhilarating, The Variations is a novel of startling originality about music and the difficulty - or impossibility - of living with the past.
Patrick Langley's debut novel, Arkady, was published in 2018 and longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Deborah Rogers Writers Prize. He lives in London.
'A gorgeous novel... A livid and visionary brotherly love story set
among our ruins. I loved it.' - Max Porter, author of Shy (praise
for Arkady)
'I haven't been able to stop thinking about [Arkady] - such a
tender, hopeful tale of brotherhood and belonging, set against
vividly imagined urban topographies. I haven't read anything like
it in ages.' - Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure (praise
for Arkady)
'Thick with smoky atmosphere and beautifully controlled - this is a
vivid and very fine debut.' - Kevin Barry, author of Nightboat to
Tangier (praise for Arkady)
'Patrick Langley's Arkady is a strange trip - luminescent, jagged
and beautiful. A debut novel that twists, compels, descends and
soars. I highly recommend it.' - Jenni Fagan, author of The
Panopticon (praise for Arkady)
'The prose crackles with energy as the narrative follows the
constant movement by placing the reader on a well-oiled tracking
dolly, often zooming out to remind us of the bigger picture.
Langley is a highly visual writer and Arkady an assured allegorical
debut about a near-future Britain that is potentially only a
recession or two away.' - Ben Myers, New Statesman (praise for
Arkady)
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